Methodology: Human Sciences

-Are all the human sciences about the mutual interaction between observation and theory?
--> In economics, the methodological relationship mostly relies on the theoretical. Although observations had to be made in order to arrive at those theories, unlike psychology, there isn't that consistent derivation of theories based on observations. It is more a matter to applying the already existing theories rather than constructing new ones.
--> In psychology, there is a more consistent and recurrent relationship between observation and theory, where studies and experiments continuously make observations and derive theories based on the conclusions

-How does the fact that the object of our inquiry is human affect the way we pursue it? How does it impact the ethical limitations imposed on it?
--> We have to pursue it by keeping in mind the subjectivity of humans. There will be a lack of objective consistency when testing.
--> participant bias= a subject will act accordingly to how they think the experimenter wants them to react. What this brings up in terms of ethics, is that there is a moral obligation to tell the subject specifically what the experiment is about in order to gain their consent. However, doing so, may not provide accurate results and accurate, legitimate reactions to the surrounding they are meant to react to in order to collect data.
--> In psychology, you need to have ethical considerations, namely that the experiment will not inflict any trauma on the subject. However, this guideline can limit the scope of inquiry because it will be difficult to predict if the experiment will have trauma on the subject, meaning, the procedures may be distilled in order to avoid this unethical outcome.
-->Humans may have unpredictable behavior and don't always make rational choices, therefore in pursuing the area of knowledge, we need to be open to the idea that there will be an endless list of controlled variables we may never be able to control. This, consequently, puts into question the reliability of the data collected.
--> Often times, it is required to make generalizations of assumptions in order to justify the conclusion, which often times, may lead to inaccurate results because those assumptions or generalizations may be, in themselves, baseless.

-What assumptions about human nature, if any, do we need to make in order to justify our methods?
--> An assumption in economics that is made is that consumers will make rational choices in an economics environment. This justifies all the theories that are subsequently built upon that, yet the disadvantage, is that that theory may not hold if humans act irrationally.
--> Therefore, it must be assumed that when observations and experiments were being carried out, that the subjects of the experiments were acting fully accordingly to their instinctive, legitimate, honest behavior and thus, that were not affected by any direct external factors (for instance, consider participant bias).
--> We make the assumption that the results obtained from tests are a representation of human behavior in that scenario, as this is what leads to the construction of theory.
--> In terms of ethics, we need to assume that the human subjects will not be traumatized by the method in order to obtain ethically correct data.